An early morning train from Cambridge to London King's Cross is the second most overcrowded train service in England and Wales, new figures show.

Great Northern’s 7.55am weekday Cambridge to London King's Cross service has a capacity of 202 people but is typically rammed with 426 passengers, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

The service is currently operated as a four-car train, but the DfT says once the government- funded Thameslink Programme has been completed in 2018 services from Cambridge will transfer to the Thameslink route, and services will be operated as eight and 12 car trains.

But it could get worse before it gets better as the data released by the DfT today (July 27) was from a passenger count in autumn 2016.

Great Northern introduced its new Class 387 trains in May, which have less seating and standing space due to improved safety.

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Lianna Etkind, of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: "The latest statistics show that overcrowding continues to make passengers' lives a misery.

"People are rightly angry that they pay more in fares year after year, but never get a seat, and have to stand crammed into someone else's armpit.

"With such high levels of overcrowding, the Government cannot expect people to pay for yet another fares hike in January."

The data, which does not include first class capacity, equates to a load factor of 211 per cent.

It is only bettered by Southern's 7.16am East Grinstead to London Bridge service, which with 1,366 passengers on a train with a capacity of 640, comes in at a standard class load factor of 213 per cent.

The average proportion of passengers carried in excess of capacity on peak services in major cities was 3.8 per cent.

Jacqueline Starr, managing director of customer experience at the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said the company is working with governments to boost the number of seats on these key routes to help the community, businesses and the economy.

"We understand passengers' frustration when they can't get a seat, which is why rail companies are working together to invest and make journeys better with thousands of new carriages and 6,400 extra train services a week by 2021," she said.

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A DfT spokeswoman said: "Rail passenger journeys have more than doubled in the last 20 years. We are committed to improving journeys and we are delivering more trains, more seats and quicker journeys to meet this record demand.

"We are investing £40 billion in our railways and by the end of 2019 we will have more than 3,700 new carriages on the network.

"We know some passengers have not received the service they deserve, and we continue to work with the industry to cut journey times and crowding, improve reliability and deliver more frequent services."

Here are the most overcrowded trains in England and Wales (figures in brackets represent their most crowded point):

1. 7.16am East Grinstead to London Bridge (640 capacity and 1,366 passengers carried)